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UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS BULLETIN 

Issued Weekly 
Vol. XVI DECEMBER 23, 1918 No. 17 

[Entered as second-class matter December 11, 1912, at the post office at Urbana, Illinois, under the Act of 
August 24, 1912. Acceptance for mailing at the special rate of postage provided for in section 1103 Act of 
October 3, 1917, authorized July 31, 1918.] 



The New Arab Kingdom 

and the Fate of The Muslim World 

BY 

ALBERT TEN EYCK OLMSTEAD 

Professor of History 



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Price 10 cents 



PUBLISHED BY THE WAR COMMITTEE 
OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 
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THE NEW ARAB KINGDOM AND THE FATE OF THE 
MUSLIM WORLD 

In the autumn of 1916, a bored newspaper correspondent at Wash- 
ington amused his readers with an account of a new power, somewhere 
in Arabia, whose request for recognition had caused our Department of 
State no little search to discover its exact location. Shortly after, 
professional orientalists were afforded that first of all proofs that a 
state actually exists: stamps marked "Hijaz Post." Since then, the 
metropolitan papers have occasionally devoted two or three lines to 
the advance made by the sultan of that country east of the Jordan and 
little more has been contributed by our periodicals. 

Prophecy has never been more at a discount than at the present, 
and yet we may venture the prediction that here we have an event of 
world meaning, that problems are raised which America must aid in 
settling, that the historians of the future may see in this event one of 
the most important results of the war. Americans have devoted little 
enough attention to the Near Eastern Question as a whole; the Arabian 
phase is virtually unknown. 

What has happened is no less th^n the rebirth of Islam. We all 
know from our school books that Islam began with Mohammed in 
Mecca, that under his immediate successors it conquered the greater 
part of the civilized world, and that there was developed within the 
century a civilization without a contemporary rival. We may further 
remember that the original Arab rulers were supplanted by Persians, 
Moors, and Turks, and that the civilization was transformed and then 
began to decline. Here our knowledge is likely to end. Few of us 
realize that Islam is one of the most potent forces in the world today, 
that it counts its adherents by the hundred millions, that in the waste 
places of the earth it converts its hundreds where Christianity wins 
its tens, that its followers occupy a belt of the best territory on earth, 
extending from Morocco and the Sudan to China and the Philippines. 
What happens in Mecca becomes matter for more than amusement 
when we realize that hundreds of thousands of men under our own flag 
feel exactly the same sentiments toward that city that other millions of 
our fellow-citizens feel toward Rome. 

Contrary to the general belief, the "Unspeakable Turk" has his 
good points. He is a soldier without superior, has much administrative 



ability, and, where he has not been corrupted by intermarriage with 
other races or by so-called "Liberalism" in the guise of the pro-German 
''Young Turk," he is, man for man, the equal of his western brother of 
similar social standing. Unfortunately, he is a northerner ruling 
southerners. He is slow, stolid, solid, rather contemptuous of the man 
from the south who is quicker in guile as in the field of the intellect. 
He takes over and patronizes, by virtue of his being a better soldier 
and ruler, a culture he is incapable of producing. To the man of the 
south, he is a northern barbarian, speaking a language which has no 
connection with the sacred speech used by the Prophet and preserved 
to posterity in the Koran. He clings to customs which are only nominal- 
ly glossed over by the Sacred Law and is no fit successor to the Prophet. 
The Arab has never forgotten that his was and is the sacred language, 
that the Koran can rightly be read only in Arabic, that from his race 
came the Prophet, that in his land are found the four holy cities of 
Mecca, Medina, Jerusalem, and Hebron, and that all the cities most 
intimately connected with the glories of the Caliphate — Alexandria, 
Damascus, Baghdad, still speak Arabic. He would be more than 
human did he not look forward to the day when once more from Mecca 
would the Law go forth. 

In the eighties of the last century, Islam seemed about to follow 
Turkey into dissolution. That it did not do so was largely the work 
of Abdul Hamid, who first discovered the worth to the state of a pan- 
Islam in which Constantinople might supplant Mecca as Rome had 
supplanted Jerusalem in the Middle Ages. History might today be 
profoundly different had this ideal continued pure and undefiled. 
Hungarian writers assisted in transforming the pan-Islamic into the 
pan-Turanian movement; but if Hungarian, Finn, and Russian Tatar 
were thereby won to Turkish support, the Arab speaking world was 
definitely alienated. Rebellion became chronic in the Yemen, in south- 
west Arabia, the most desirable part of the peninsula. Army after army 
was lost by battle, disease, and treachery. The Turkish Revolution of 
1908, with its brief ''Era of Good Feeling," for the moment checked 
the Arab movement, but it revived at once when the Young Turks, in 
their unfortunate imitation of western nationalism, began the Ottoman- 
ization of the Empire. Radicals went so far as to demand a Turkish 
translation of the Koran, the use of that language exclusively on trains, 
in newspapers, in private bookkeeping. By such means, the close 
connection with Hungary was continued, Bulgaria suddenly discovered 



that the original Bulgars had been Turanians and so fit alHes for the 
Turks, Muslim intellectuals in Trans-Caucasian Russia longed for the 
day when they should be restored to Turkey. To the debit side of the 
account must be placed the complete alienation of all the other nationali- 
ties in Turkey, Muslim equally with Christian. When the Great War 
began, the Arabic,-speaking peoples were ripe for revolt. 

Before any overt act occurred, Turkish officials seized and killed the 
Syrian leaders in several cities. Among the patriots thus executed 
were members of the tribe of the Sherif of Mecca, a descendant of the 
Prophet, and the official head of the sacred city. Already predisposed 
to revolt by the ''Liberalism" of Enver Pasha and the Committee fo 
Union and Progress, by their scarcely concealed agnosticism, and by 
the deliberate abrogation of provisions of the Sacred Law laid down in 
the Koran itself, the Arabs felt themselves provoked beyond endurance. 
In a ringing address to "all our Muslim brethren," Husein, the son of 
Ali, appealed to Allah as judge, in the words of the Book, mourned the 
loss of Muslim prestige brought about by the Young Turk fiascoes in 
Tripoli and the Balkans, and its present perilous position. He con- 
demned the horrors of deportation, the murder of leading Muslims, the 
banishments and confiscations of property belonging to the innocent 
families of victims. Then he told of the revenge taken by the Turkish 
garrison for the revolt of Mecca, how a shell fell but four feet from the 
very house of Allah, how the rug that covered the Sacred Black Stone 
was fired, the despair of the pious as they saw it and the kiUing of 
worshippers every day within the sacred precincts until worship was 
perforce discontinued. No westerner can realize the thrill of horror 
such sacrilege must produce in the breast of every true Muslim. Islam 
had not risen when the Turks, at the dictation of their infidel masters, 
had preached the Holy War. Henceforth, there could be no doubt as 
to the position every true Muslim must take. 

The cup of Young Turk iniquity was full, and on the sixteenth of 
November, 1916, Husein was declared Sultan of the Hejaz and was 
promptly recognized by the Entente Powers. By their operations east 
of the Dead Sea, the Arabs did much to render futile the Turko-German 
advance against Egypt, thus saving the Suez Canal and the route to 
India and Australia. They played their part in the redemption of 
Jerusalem by drawing off troops at a time when these were desperately 
needed by the Turks. In the last campaign, they assisted the British 
in the great drive which carried the allies from Samaria to Aleppo. 



The war in the Near East has ended in the complete triumph of our 
allies and only the political settlement remains. A son of the Sherif 
has arrived in Paris, has been assigned two delegates at the conference, 
and has given tea to American correspondents. Already we can see^, 
at least in outline, the problems which must be solved. First, a new 
state has come into the world; and, whatever aid it may receive from 
the Entente Powers, it must be independent in every sense, or Muslim 
thought will be outraged. At present, it occupies only the Hejaz, the 
strip along the west coast of Arabia, with the holy cities, plus a line of 
advance up the Mecca Railroad to Syria, but its claims are far wider, 
even to Syria as a whole. Yemen is in anarchy, with the chance that 
the anarchy will be ended with some sort of British rule, for Yemen 
forms the back country to Aden, and Aden commands the exit of the- 
Red Sea, the route to India. The center of the peninsula is the home 
of the fickle wandering tribes or of oasis cities ruled by emirs who may 
admit the Sultan as first among equals, but will not surrender their 
local autonomy without a struggle. Oman and the other states along 
the seaboard are more or less under British protection; Syria, Babylonia,. 
Mesopotamia, are actually being administered by British soldiers; next 
door, across the narrow Red Sea, Egypt is a British protectorate; and 
India, with its hundred million Muslims, is likewise British, however- 
much this fact may be hidden by native rulers with splendid courts.. 
General Maude, in the proclamation issued after the capture of Baghdad,, 
expressed the ''hope and desire of the British people and the nations 
in alliance with them that the Arab race may rise once more to great- 
ness and renown among the peoples of the earth, and that it shall bind 

itself together to this end in unity and concord that you may 

be united with your kinsmen in north, east, south, and west, in realiz- 
ing the aspirations of your race." 

Whether practical politics will permit the coming true of these and 
similar aspirations remains to be seen. The pure Arab is an extreme- 
individualist, and there is much the same spirit among the others who' 
speak Arabic. The Near East has rarely been a unity, and then gen- 
erally under foreign control. If Muslim Arabs could for once be induced 
to abandon their old time desert individualism, there is still the fact 
that they do not comprise all the Arab speaking population, and that 
they are not a religious unity among themselves. The true Arab of 
the desert permits his religion to sit lightly upon him, and with the mass 
of the Muslim Arabs, is nominally Sunni or orthodox, though without 



fanaticism. Babylonia is largely occupied by Shias, or Dissenters, who 
are among the fanatics of the world. Here are the sacred cities of the 
Persians, Kerbela, Nejf, Kadhemin, with their minarets plated with 
solid gold, their trade in corpses brought from afar to be buried in the 
sacred soil where once flowed the blood of Ali, martyred son-in-law of 
the Prophet. To them come bands of pilgrims, who will not give a 
drink of water to the fainting traveller, lest he defile the cup by lack 
of orthodoxy, who work themselves up into a frenzy in acting the sacred 
dramas which relate the death of Hassan and Hussein, the murdered 
grandsons of the Prophet, until the blood flows from the self-inflicted 
wounds, and the stranger betakes himself away for safety. Here are 
to be found the spiritual leaders of Persia, and from here came the 
impulse for the short lived Persian constitution. Babylonia is the port 
of entry for much of Persia's commerce, she is likewise the center of 
Persian life. 

In the mountains to the north and east are the Nestorian Christians, 
further west are the Jacobites, both clinging to the remnants of their 
Syriac language and literature. Armenians press into the northern 
parr of the Mesopotamian area, while many Christians now speak the 
Kurdish of their barbarous masters who roam the prairies with their 
flocks of" sheep and goats, or exchange their black goat's hair tents for 
adobe huts without thereby abandoning their rapacious habits. For 
the most part, however, Mesopotamia is still virgin soil, for even in 
antiquity the land was tilled only close to the rivers. The problem 
today is that of the scientific conservation and use of water; this aff"ects 
the problem of boundaries. At. first glance, no finer example of a 
scientific frontier could be found, for the Armenian barrier range is 
almost a straight line from east to west, cut by few and difficult passes, 
and with the population on the two sides essentially diff"erent in type. 
Today, when irrigation is the great problem, we see that irrigation must 
be based on the Euphrates, not the Tigris, and that inevitably means 
the control of the Euphrates watershed far to the north of the barrier 
range by the power which owns Mesopotamia. 

Central Syria aff'ords a problem of more than usual complexity. 
The inhabitants of Mount Lebanon are among the best of the earth in 
physical and mental strength. Unfortunately, half are Christians, the 
other half Druses, an unorthodox Muslim sect, and warfare between 
the two is the one theme of Lebanon history. The Christians are largely 
Maronites, Syrians reconciled with the Latin Church, who have been 



permitted to retain their liturgy in their native language and many of 
their peculiar customs in return for their recognition of Rome. As 
such they were protected by the French, the official defenders of Catho- 
lics in the Near East. When an unusually vigorous conflict resulted in 
the Damascus "massacres" of 1860, French troops were landed to "re- 
store order" and the Lebanon was given local autonomy under a Chris- 
tian governor appointed with the approval of the Powers. The denun- 
ciation of the Concordat by the French government ended the protecto- 
rate and the French flag no longer floated on holy days over every 
Catholic institution in Syria, but French influence continued strong and 
many of the Lebanese received their training in the splendid Jesuit uni- 
versity of St. Joseph in Beirut. The Druses, forced to look elsewhere for 
a defender, found one in the English, who long exercised great influence 
over their "brethren." In a secret treaty, soon after the outbreak of 
the war, the British threw over their allies and assigned the Lebanon 
to France. 

For two generations, American missionaries have carried on work 
in the Lebanons which can only be termed magnificent. The Syrian 
Protestant College in Beirut has been a worthy rival of the Jesuit insti- 
tution. American ways have been introduced by its staff of American 
teachers, the scientific investigation of the country has begun, on the 
football field the most diverse races and religions have learned team 
work and self-control. The lower classes have meanwhile migrated to 
America. No village in the most remote mountains but will furnish 
a man to salute you with "Hello there, you an American? I am an 
American too," to inform you that he came from San Antonio, Texas,, 
or Fort Wayne, Indiana, to swear a little just to show you that he is a 
genuine American. In his house, he will proudly exhibit the papers- 
which prove that he is "an American citizen, just like you." Long- 
ago, some of these men dreamed of the day when America would oust 
the Turk, and now the New Syria National League demands a federated 
Syria, "from the Taurus Mountains to the Sinai Peninsula," and "that 
the United States assume guardianship and administration of Syria 
until such a time as the Syrians are able to perform the functions of full 
self-government." 

America is again brought into contact with the Near East in Pales- 
tine. Zionism has received the support of many of our citizens of Jewish 
descent and there are few Christians but would rejoice that there is- 
hope of a "Return to Zion." None the less, we cannot overlook the- 



obstacles to a Zionist state. The majority of the population of Pales- 
tine, descendants of pre-Mosaic Canaanites, are Muslims, and there 
exists a large sprinkling of Christians. The site of Solomon's temple 
is the third most holy Muslim shrine. When Jersualem was taken by 
General Allenby, it was not handed over to the Jews. Instead, to quote 
his official report, '*The Mosque of Omar and the area around it have 
been placed under Moslem control, and a military cordon of Moham- 
medan officers and soldiers has been established around the mosque. 
Orders have been issued that no non-Moslem is to pass within the cordon 
without permission oi the military governor and the Moslem in charge;" 
Christian and Jew excluded from so sacred a place, and in favor of 
Muslims ! The policy is clear. Equally clear is the proclamation which 
declared that the sacred shrine of Hebron, where Abraham, Isaac, and 
Jacob, with their wives, are supposed to be buried, *'has been placed 
under exclusive Moslem control'' 

The lands belonging to Muslim mosques and schools, to Christian 
churches and monasteries, add the complication of vested interest. Much 
of the remainder is owned by Christian and Muslim notables and they 
are up in arms over the new invasion. Massmeetings of Christians 
and Muslims have been held, protection has been demanded against 
forced sales under unfair conditions, and the use of Arabic as the only 
official language. This has been conceded in principle and Allenby has 
refused to register land transfers made since the occupation. Sir Syed 
Ameer Ali, probably the greatest living Muslim publicist, has strongly 
declared the Germanic origin of Zionism and has categorically stated 
the displeasure of Muslims at the change of policy. British policy in 
the east does indeed rest on Muslim support and when he points out 
the relative numbers of Muslims and of Jews in the world and the num- 
ber who today support Britain, he brings forward what after all must 
be the most serious objection, from the British point of view, to an 
independent Palestine. 

The clash of Muslim and Zionist interests is undoubted. We need 
not on that account believe them hopelessly impossible of reconciliation. 
Many of the Zionists are now stating that it is ''not only unwise but 
positively unjust to ask the peace Conference for an immediate Jewish 
state. It was for them to ask, in the first place, for recognition by the 
world that Palestine was the Jewish land in the past and would again 
be the Jewish land in the future. They should ask for opportunities 
to bring the Jews back to Palestine. It would depend on the Jews 



themselves to build up the Jewish commonwealth. When once Great 
Britain was appointed trustee, they would, in conjunction with Great 
Britain, prepare and carry out a detailed scheme for building up the 
Jewish Commonwealth. The Jewish land-holding must first of all be 
greatly increased. By democratic legislation this could be brought 
about, with due regard to the rights of all other inhabitants. There was 
■ample elbow-room there, as the land was very sparsely populated. It is 
obvious that a vast population can be brought into the country without 
the slightest encroachments upon the rights of the Arab peasant." 
Such, somewhat condensed, is the statement made by Dr. Weizmann, 
chairman of the Zionist Commission sent out under the auspices of the 
British government. Contrasted with the dreams of many believers 
in the "Return to Zion," it is very modest, but it represents a program 
which is perfectly possible to execute, and, what is at present much more 
to the point, it represents what the practical Briton believes to be the 
utmost which can be conceded in view of the promises made to the 
Arab kingdom. 

For Husein, Sultan of the Hejaz, is no small force to be reckoned 
with. When Faisul, his son, entered Damascus, he ''announced that 
he made no distinction between members of the Arab nation, of whatever 
creed or religion. I shall never betray the Arabs, and I trust that the 
Arabic language will attain the position that it deserves. It is the suffer- 
ing of the Syrian nation and the atrocities which they have suffered from 
the Turks which have brought about this day." "The sword of the 
Arabs could not be sheathed until the other regions held by the Turks 
were freed," and he pointedly included Aleppo, far to the north in Syria, 
in the "Arabian country." All Syria might be claimed on this basis. 
Yet when he arrived in London, he could declare "The two main 
branches of the Semitic family, Arabs and Jews, understand one another, 
and I hope that, as a result of interchange of ideas at the Peace Con- 
ference, which will be guided by ideals of self-determination and na- 
tionality, each nation will make definite progress towards the realiza- 
tion of its aspirations. Arabs are not jealous of Zionist Jews, and 
intend to give them fair play, and the Zionist Jews have assured the 
Nationalist Arabs of their intention to see that they, too, have fair play 
in their respective areas. Turkish intrigue in Palestine has raised 
jealousy between the Jewish colonists and the local peasants, but the 
mutual understanding of the aims of Arabs and Jews will at once clear 
away the last trace of this former bitterness, which, indeed, had already 

10 



-practically disappeared even before the war by the work of the Arab 
secret Revolutionary Committee, which, in Syria and elsewhere, laid 
the foundation of the Arab military successes of the past two years." 
To the practiced ear, there is a marked difference between the two 
^speeches. In the intervening time, Mecca as well as Jerusalem had 
heard from London. 

Whatever the immediate decision as to the territories controlled by 
the Hejaz Sultan, his spiritual position is a portent for the future. The 
present Sultan still calls himself the Caliph, the "Successor of the 
Prophet," but he is now completely discredited. Historically, his title 
was of more than doubtful legality, and he was accepted only because 
Turkey was the one important Muslim power. Muslim publicists have 
of late 'challenged his title anew and the strong protest of the Meccan 
Ulema, perhaps the most respected body of theologians and jurists in 
the Muslim world, closes with the sinister request that their opponents 
■consider this question -."What is the Caliphate and what are its condi- 
tions? .... As to the question of the Caliphate, in spite of all that is 
known of the deplorable condition in which it is situated at the present 
moment, we have not interfered with it at all, and it will remain as it 
is pending the decision of the whole Muslim worlds The significance 
of the last few words cannot well be exaggerated. 

Meanwhile, the Sultan of the Hejaz is the most observed of all 
Muslims. Thus far, his actions have been such as to secure the respect 
and admiration of all who fight for freedom. For the first time in 
centuries, the annual pilgrimage to Mecca has been conducted without 
robbery and slaughter on the road. Mecca has at last something like 
modern sanitation, and travellers need no longer hasten to reach rail 
head before the coming of the pilgrim caravan and the concomitant 
cholera. Public schools, public works, a newspaper, the use of foreign 
and Christian agencies, even to the Red Cross, all are to be noted. 

In the last analysis, it is still the Golden Rule which measures a 
man and a religion. We all know how ''Christian" Germany was 
responsible for the murder or deportation of millions of unfortunate 
Armenians. On the borders of the desert east of Palestine, Faisul, son 
and general of the Hejaz Sultan, found some of the unfortunates the 
Young Turk had left to perish. He freed them, aided them to the best 
of his ability, and sent out of the country such as wished. An Armenian 
Pasha in Egypt sent him this telegram; ''Every Armenian throughout 
the world is today the Ally of the Arab movement." To similar words of 

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019 608 051 A 

appreciation for this act, Sultan Husein replied: "Faisul, in assisting 
the oppressed, has only performed one of the first duties of our religion 
and of the Arab's faith. I say with confidence and pride that the 
Armenian race and other races in similar plight are regarded by us as 
partners in weal and woe. We ask God before everything to give us 
strength to enable us to do them helpful service by which to prove to 
the world the true feelings of Islam, whose watchword is freedom." 

With such a confession of faith, we need not wonder that of the 
two hundred and fifty million Muslims of the world, a bare five per cent 
was ever on the side of our opponents, that nearly the entire remainder, 
before the breakdown of Russia, was definitely pledged to the cause 
of liberty, that many were fighting side by side with our boys in France. 
By their action in this war, as well as by the weight of their numbers 
and their unrivalled position at the very heart of the old world, they 
demand and will secure adequate treatment at the peace table. ^ 



^This article is a revision of one presented in the Historical Outlook, IX: 480 ff. 



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